Delme Parfitt highlights why the demands of 15-a-side and rugby's perennial power struggles are likely to result in a less celebrated, English-dominated side going for gold at Rio 2016

THERE is no harm in picking hypothetical Team GB Olympic Sevens dream teams, but the prospect of actually seeing something resembling one in action at the 2016 Rio Games is, as things stand, remote. Very remote.

George North, Alex Cuthbert, Justin Tipuric...just three Wales stars who are appearing perennially in composite selections compiled by pundits and punters.

Their participation though is unrealistic in the current climate, even amid idealistic appeals from IRB chief executive Brett Gosper.

Make it happen. That’s Gosper’s message to unions around the globe, his argument being that the opportunity rugby has to become a permanent Olympic fixture simply has to be grasped in two years team via the inclusion of the sport’s most glamorous 15-a-side names.

Apparently the International Olympic Committee is expecting to see the likes of Sonny Bill Williams, Israel Folau and North on show.

Members would be advised not to hold their breath.

Gosper says he hopes unions will “make it easy” for such superstars to go for gold, but rugby administrators rarely make things easy when it comes to player availability.

A crowded to bursting calendar hardly helps either.

The IRB has guaranteed international release for the 2015-16 World Sevens Series, but with a 15-a-side World Cup, a Six Nations, goodness knows what club commitments and summer tours – Wales have a three-Test tour of New Zealand arranged for June 2016 by the way – to factor in, it will, quite frankly, be staggering if, for example North, is freed up for an Olympic Sevens sojourn.

The Rio Games run from August 5-21. Prime pre-season period for North’s employers Northampton Saints. Be assured they won’t be thrilled at having to start the Aviva Premiership while their star turn rests after his exertions on the other side of the world for Team GB.

Firstly, the assumption that a player like North could simply switch from his day job and slot seamlessly into Sevens would appear naive, and probably a little insulting to established specialists of the small-sided game.

Gordon Tietjens, the New Zealand Sevens coach, has said it could take some players up to six tournaments to adapt to the abridged game, which demands different levels of fitness and a unique tactical understanding.

North would have the raw materials, no question. But if his inclusion in the first place is supposed to be because superstardom gives Team GB the best chance of success, then Sevens bosses could never justify plunging him in unprepared and simply crossing their fingers.

So how about having North involved in a handful of those World series events to get him up to speed? Good luck. If there’s a team of negotiators out there who can pull that one off they’ll deserve a medal themselves.

Secondly, there remains confusion over just what the make-up of this so-called Great Britain side will, or indeed can, look like.

England have been nominated as the home nation charged with the task of securing Team GB’s qualification, needing a top four spot in the 2015-16 series to guarantee it.

But when I asked some colleagues whether that meant Team GB in Rio would essentially be England in red, white and blue, or whether selection would start with a clean slate ahead of the Games and include the cream of Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish, there were some who didn’t have the faintest flutterings of the beginnings of an idea.

For the record, Celtic players will be available, but as is so often the case in the world of rugby politics, what is laid down in theory looks unlikely to play out in reality.

If England storm through qualification courtesy of their specialists, we can expect those same players to dominate the Team GB squad that heads to Brazil.

And when you think that a Sevens squad contains only 12, you wonder what room there is going to be for your Norths, your Danny Cares, your Kyle Eastmonds or your Stuart Hoggs. Especially when pursuing clearance for them to properly prepare is likely to require diplomacy of United Nations proportions.

After a year of almost unprecedented boardroom squabbling in the oval ball game, confidence is low that a way can be found to pitch together the very best of British.

Pity that, because London 2012 showed what can be achieved when a Team GB outfit takes to the field, and that was football, which unlike rugby has no history of amalgamation under a British flag – and no future either.

So as Gosper fears, rugby is in danger of missing the massive opportunity of becoming a core Olympic sport beyond Tokyo 2020.

Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games have really caught the imagination, they’ve shown there is a big appetite among the rugby fraternity in this country for competitive tournament Sevens action with gold medals at stake.

It doesn’t take a vivid imagination therefore to envisage the heights that sentiment could scale were it to be translated onto the Olympic stage.

Getting there though, could be one hell of a battle. In the meantime, no harm in dreaming...

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